Rediscovering the Scandal of the Cross

by Joel Green & Mark Baker
Review by Jordan Henricks

It seems a provocative project that someone would seek to “rediscover the scandal of the cross,” but that is exactly what Mark Baker and Joel Green have attempted and succeeded in doing. Rediscovering the Scandal of the Cross is an engaging investigation that seeks to understand the saving work of the death of Jesus. The authors write, “Our chief images for interpreting the saving significance of Jesus’ death have kept the word of the cross distant from issues that press in on us…We need to hear again the word, the scandal of the cross.” (34) Motivated by pertinent and justified suspicions that atonement theories have perpetuated suspect systems of theology, as well as become growingly less relevant, Baker and Green set off on their agenda by offering an orientation to “the profundity of atonement thought” and an evaluation of “some of the key theological issues and terms in which our understanding of God’s redemptive plan is based.” (32)

In the opening chapters, the authors offer a survey of the images of atonement found in the New Testament, which include important themes of redemption, sacrifice, revelation, and reconciliation. (99-108) For Green and Baker, it is imperative for understanding the scandal of the cross that “The significance of Jesus’ death “for us” can never be exhausted or captured…” (114-15) The implication of this statement is that the penal substitution theory of atonement, which “is viewed by many as the one correct approach to explaining the saving significance of the cross,” cannot be defined as the only orthodox view of atonement. (151) The same statement can and should be made for other views of atonement as well. Green and Baker point to the vast amount of historical and theological materials that seek to communicate the message of the cross in ways that prevent the cross from losing its scandalous character in order to support the idea that there is no one orthodox view of atonement. (151) The authors interact with views beginning with the Early Church and extending into our contemporary context to display that the method in which the message of atonement is communicated is far less important than our ability help our communities “understand and experience the saving power of the cross.” (198)

Rediscovering the Scandal of the Cross is a much-needed wake-up call for the Church today. In our contemporary context of ever-increasing ease of communication, it is imperative that we seek to understand and engage other cultures in order to better communicate the saving work of the death of Jesus. However, in order to do this, we must first understand who Jesus is so that we can confidently proclaim what his death means for humanity. It seems to me that most of our argumentation over differing views of atonement finds its root in differing Christological views; and that seems to me to be a problem. The painstaking effort that was poured out over the issue of Christ’s divinity and humanity during the first six centuries of Christendom should caution us to be wary about how we discuss views of atonement without first developing an appreciation for the affirmation that Jesus is Christ.

To affirm that Jesus is Christ is not only to affirm the revelation of God through the Incarnation, but is also to affirm the revelation of God through his Word. For Jesus to be the Christ is for Jesus to be a man born into the history of the people of Israel and yet to also be the very God who made himself known and adopted the people of Israel. Thus, our understanding of the person of Jesus and the meaning of his death for us must come out of the canon of Scripture. In other words, we cannot appropriately understand atonement unless we take into account what the entirety of Scripture, Old Testament and New Testament, says about the saving work of the death of Jesus. Thus, it is at this point that I find Alasdair MacIntyre’s approach, as found in Green and Baker’s concluding chapter, helpful for thinking about how we communicate the message of atonement.

MacIntyre makes a distinction between “technique” and “craft” concerning how we communicate the message of atonement.” (214-15) For MacIntyre, practicing a technique entails learning a set of discrete steps that always has the same set of particular emphases. (216) On the other hand, according to Green and Baker,

Mastering a craft thus entails standing in a tradition and engagement with the present, but it is especially about developing particular intuitions, forming particular dispositions, becoming a particular kind of person… Practicing a craft and education into a craft are thus less about fixed procedures and more about apprenticeship to a master in relationship to a community defined by that craft. (215)

Thus, practicing a craft seems to me to be the result of catechesis. Are we explaining the message of the saving significance of Jesus’ death in reductionist terms to our congregations, expecting them to implement a set of steps emphasizing one view of atonement to initiate others into the kingdom of heaven? Or are we utilizing our time at the pulpit and in conversation to teach our congregations the story of salvation and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who took on the form of a man and died on the cross as a work of atonement? Most explanations of atonement today seem to never mention the Old Testament or Israel, which if my church history serves me correctly was at one time considered Marcionism and labeled a heresy. Thus, as we seek to communicate the saving work of Jesus’ death, whether by a model of penal substitution, Christus Victor, or one of the other models, we must do so in a way that both engages the culture to whom we are proclaiming the good news, and in a way that does not limit atonement to the passion narrative. Rediscovering the Scandal of the Cross is a contemporary investigation of various models of atonement that brings the entire canon of Scripture into perspective as it seeks to engage the cultures to which the message addresses.